Grace and what it means to you.

This is one thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions. You can do nothing to earn His acceptance by works but He loves us despite the fact we don't deserve it. The Father says, "I accept you just the way you are, but I love you too much to leave you that way."

I use "Glory" or "Glorious" instead of "Grace" and I only use it to describe America. I don't know how I would explain what it means to me. The only idea that comes to mind when I think of it is freedom.

I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people who will see a world
That I shall never know

I use "Glory" or "Glorious" instead of "Grace" and I only use it to describe America. I don't know how I would explain what it means to me. The only idea that comes to mind when I think of it is freedom.

Having become a follower of Jesus late in life I have struggled with the concept of grace. It takes great wisdom to define things simply and recently I had the pleasure to spend some time with a noted theologian [who is one of the lecturers in my course on the old testament]. I asked him. His reply: "grace is an undeserved gift."

Then I will give an old example of what Grace is: A young dad from his porch watches his 4 year old playing in the sandbox. His dad not only loves his son he also likes him. The young boy finds a rock that is stuck in the dirt and tries to get it out. He starts digging around it, kicking it, pushing just everything he can think of but can't get the rock out. He does this for a long time then drops his head and starts crying. Smiling his dad gets off the porch and ask his son what is wrong. The young man explains that he tried everything but his dad said no son you forgot to ask me. So the dad bends down and removes the rock.

I use "Glory" or "Glorious" instead of "Grace" and I only use it to describe America. I don't know how I would explain what it means to me. The only idea that comes to mind when I think of it is freedom.

Something you choose to deny those that think differently from you at every opportunity .
You and the following Poster appear through your actions to be complete Hypocrites and whilst you may strive to be something , you should not label yourselves as though you had achieved anything .
It is your very type of person who makes the label of Christian look so unattractive to followers of other creeds who inevitably judge claimants by their actions and words .
I prefer , "If you don't know the truth , just smell the surrounding air " -----it turns out to be good guide from life experience .

@Carygrant - I fail to see your reasoning in the hypocrisy charge. If a person states "grace is an undeserved gift.” they are acknowledging their short comings.
In essence they are stating, I am imperfect I stumble and I fall but the gift of salvation is still there. They never claimed to be better than anyone they only claimed that they believe in a creator that is the epitome of unconditional love.
Did you see something in their post that I missed? Please enlighten me Sir.

@patlape --- Like most generalisations , ours both contain parts of the truth
Here we are dealing with people who deceive themselves . They imagine that telling others that they are this and that makes the assertions and labels true , per se . No such thing of the sort, of course .
You know the type --- there are numbers of them here , particularly regular contributors to the religious section .
They say one thing and pay lip service to certain values and standards and then separately behave in exactly the opposite way .
They are hypocrites or , to be more accurate , ignorant and foolish .
I refer to people who claim to acknowledge their shortcomings but never do anything to modify or change their behaviour and are therefore simply Hot Air merchants .It may be God has the capacity to endlessly forgive , but when people use the admission of sins or wrongs as a PC method of repeatedly excusing unacceptable behaviour , they need to be exposed as cheats and hypocrites .They are the "but " and "if ' merchants . There is always another exception for them to display their old inferior ways . They never change . just go through the motions and play act .
Most mean no badness . They just know no better .

God knows we are not perfect. When you follow Jesus we do our best to show it. Christians stumble just like others. The difference is we do our best not to stumble. When you have children that are real young and then turn into teens don't expect them not to. It's called unconditional love and be there for them, to guide them but most of all even if they rebel let them know you will always be there for them but as a parent don't accept what they do wrong as right. I picked my fights but it was always to prevent them from going to jail or hurt. They can see it now and thank me but then they didn't. You can't live your child's life but you can help them in their travels. Most of all, show by example and don't bring up the past if they are doing right. So grace to them also.